The new version of Etsy....

I just discovered this new site called Shop Handmade and wanted to share it with all of you. If you are familiar with Etsy then you'll love it! It's got everything you could ever want, all made by artisans and sold directly to you, without the middle man, or shall I say, middle woman. Etsy is one of my favorite places to look for gifts but lately I've been totally overwhelmed by the sheer number of people listing products on there. Let's say you search for earrings...you could potentionally be faced with 46,000 pages of results. Not 46,000 items, 46,000 PAGES!!! Who has time for that? Even when you narrow your search results, it becomes rather cumbersome. Now enter the same search terms on Shop Handmade and it yields 164 pages....ahhh, much more reasonable. Yes, it is not the veteran site for selling handmade items but at least it's more manageable. Not to mention they have the added benefit of carbon mitigation. How? Here's a quote from their site..."Every item on ShopHandmade is carbon mitigated. We protect 25 square feet of endangered rainforest every time an item is sold. You don't pay a penny for this. Sellers don't pay a penny for this. We pay for it." Now that's a place I'd like to spend my money! Be stylish, frugal, and environmentally conscious all at the same time! Check it out.... www.shophandmade.com

The Knack

Thought I'd share a review from The Knack in Canada...they highlight what's new and hot. It's a great site to seek out new products, people and places!

http://gottheknack.blogspot.com

New Style Coming Soon!

We've been diligently working to bring you a few new Betty Designs for the summer 2010. I am always getting requests for something with more pink so here is a sneak preview of one liner that will be on our site very soon! It's called The Sydney....

Colorado in Spring

Yet another typical Colorado spring....flipping from snow to summer temps is not unusual! Here we are, all excited to start riding again, and this morning I woke up to 4 inches of fresh snow!!! The reason I live in Colorado??? Well, by 3pm ALL of that is gone and we are playing outside in the beautiful sunshine!!! And we're expecting temps in the 70's all weekend. Thank goodness...we can finally get out and ride!

Also, for those of you who live in the Northwest...there is a new bike show this weekend at the Convention Center in Portland called The Bicycle Show. It's put on by Pedal Nation Events and sounds like they have some great activities planned. I would check out the Bike Fashion Show on Sat. and Sun. at 3pm! They are also having a Pimp'd Bike contest that I'm assuming will showcase some really interesting cruisers! Wish I could go...